Books on Haiti and the Caribbean

Hubert Cole. Christophe: King of Haiti. New York: The Viking Press, 1967.

C.L.R. James. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (1938)

Edourad Gissant. Caribbean Doscourse (2004)  /  Barbara Harlow. Resistance Literature (1987)

Josaphat B. Kubayanda. The Poet's Africa: Africanness in the Poetry of Nicolas Guillen and Aime Cesaire (1990)

Myriam J. A. Chancy. Framing Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women (1997)

Paul Laraque and Jack Hirschman.  Open Gate An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry (2001)

David P. Geggus, ed. The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World.  University of South Carolina Press, 2001.

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The Revolutionary Potential of Haiti

 Its Creeds, Values. and Struggle

By Ezili Dantò

This commentary will examine the revolutionary potential of Haiti and how Haiti addressed, at its inception, varying levels of oppression and exploitation from a race, gender, nationality, religion/myth/cosmological/psychological, political and from the economic and cultural perspective.

Mr. José Antonio Gutiérrez wrote an excellent article on the current situation in Haiti, Ayiti: Occupation or freedom? The points made in the following two paragraphs are worth reiterating for suitably illustrating the crux of the matter:

Also, certain points made in the commentaries are quite revealing. Marie Nadine makes classic points and calls Jean on his promotion of macoutes. (i.e,. "we are not all oppressed at the same level . . . .Similarly, in Haiti, there are layers of oppression whereby females particularly the dark skin and poor are at the very bottom." and the contributions of the Haitian Maroon rebels and female warriors of the Haitian Revolution, such as Mari Jann, are "overlooked," "constantly minimalized and underappreciated.")

But what interest further are the explorations, in the commentaries, written by Gutiérrez and reiterated by Wayne about the various levels of class, gender, race and special oppressions and exploitation. To which, I'd like to herein add these comments and HLLN links for further dialogue and consideration:

Indeed, Haiti's struggles is not solely a "class struggle" as certain neo-Marxists, Marxists, or "Leftists" continue to insist. José Antonio Gutiérrez is correct—the end of capitalism will not mean the end of all oppression. 

But here, I hasten to add a caveat. Private means of ownership is not the issue for Haitians. For most Haitians wish to own their own land, be masters and lord of the land and its resources in Haiti (Dessaline’s Law) and have its value recognized as part of their net worth, not ignored. Still, concepts such as "capitalism," "socialism," "communism" have fairly run their course and contain too many abused analysis, notions, and presumptions scarcely based on our reality, but on abstract theories. The problem is that, as practiced by the world oligarchs and their "artificial legal entities," capitalism is nothing less than just plain rehashed feudalism.

Haiti shall find its own way based on its own needs. Besides capitalism, in my view, is not inherently evil, nor is socialism or communism. Each may be used to promote humane but economic values that could take Haiti out of containment in poverty. For instance, capitalism has assisted the heretofore poverty-ridden Native Americans in Connecticut, USA to be economically self-sufficient in a relatively short period of time without blithely destroying their neighboring, more privilege communities. The Mashantucket Pequots now own the world's largest casinos (Foxwoods), the profits of which are used to make life easier—even possible—for people who weren't born to privilege but to all sorts of deprivations. Private ownership (capitalism) combined with the use of social subsidies (socialism) for a particular group, in this case was a valuable means for elevating the Pequot masses, and the tool that help attain long overdue catharsis, promoted cohesion, connection, and community.

(Of course, Casinos, per se, may, by definition, prey on human vulnerabilities and the poor. But that's another issue and one that's not too ominous or relevant in a State that's considered one of the richest of the US). 

But, to get back to the point to be made here with reference to the commentaries: The end of profit-over-people, feudalistic capitalism/financial colonialism will not mean the end of all oppression based on race, gender, nationality, religion and the cultural and social phenomenon that are part and parcel of biological fatalism. No.

Indeed, it is not debatable that oppression based on "pigmentocracy," sex, religion and gender predate the capitalist system. These pre-capitalist oppressions, especially patriarchy (a form for racism, sexism and original sin-ism/religion-based-exclusions) were utilized by the old feudal oligarchs to feed, nurture, and help create and secure capitalism. Today its various structures—colonialism, neocolonialism, neo liberalism, globalization—still vie for the soul of Black and Brown folk, not because racism, sexism, original sin-ism are inherent to capitalism but because they are convenient tools to promote the feudalistic hegemony of a particular male grouping historically endowed with what has been codified as "white privilege"—economically, socially, and culturally. 

Moreover, so-called "race" oppression oftentimes trumps sexual oppression. For, in many ways, the greater majority of (socially-defined) Black and Brown women of this world, of any hue, are more likely to be socially and economically oppressed than the greater majority of (socially-defined) white women of any economic status. There is "race" oppression, economic oppression, gender oppression, nationality oppression, oppression based on religion, et al. All are used to maintain Officialdom's current balance of power, and profit-over-people values, at various levels.

A few points may be made in terms of the revolutionary potential of Haiti and how Haiti addressed, at its inception, "varying levels of oppression and exploitation" from a race, gender, nationality, religion, mythological/cosmological/psychological, and from the economic and cultural perspective.

1. Race

Haiti is the only nation created based on a revolutionary philosophy that deracialized the term "Black" and exploded the capitalistic use of the term to exploit and oppress (Marguerite Laurent l#3).

That is, in principle, Haiti is a nation of Blacks, meaning of "lovers-of-liberty" no matter their pigmentation ("race").

2. Economic equity

Dessalines' dream of a "Black ruled independent Haiti" where the assets of the country are equitably divided amongst all Haitians, is what Haitians have been struggling to achieve, within a hostile American Mediterranean, for over 200 years. Dessalines is so revered by Haitians, he is the ONLY one of the revolutionary heroes of Haiti, to become a Lwa. He's Haiti's liberator, founding father, first ruler, teacher, guide and spiritual father. (See, Felix Morrisseau-Leroy poem, "Thank you Father Dessalines"; see Haiti's National Anthem called Dessaline's Song or La Desalinyen. Listen to the audio)

Haiti's liberator and founding father, General Jean Jacques Dessalines, said, "I Want the Assets of the Country to be Equitably Divided" and for that he was assassinated (#equity) by the mulatto sons of France (#impunity). That was the first coup d'etat, the Haitian holocaust— organized exclusion of the masses, misery, poverty and the impunity of the economic elite—continues (with Feb. 29, 2004 marking the 33rd coup d'etat). Haiti's peoples continue to resist (#zero) the return of despots, tyrants and enslavers (#horrify) who wage war on the poor majority and Black, contain-them-in poverty through neocolonialism' debts, "free trade" and foreign "investments." These neocolonial tyrants refuse to allow an equitable division of wealth, excluding the majority in Haiti from sharing in the country's wealth and assets (expose)

(See also, Kanga Mundele: Our Mission to Live Free or Die Trying, Another Haitian Independence Day under Occupation; The Legacy of Impunity of One Sector-Who killed Dessalines?; The Legacy of Impunity. The Neoconlonialist inciting political instability is the problem. Haiti is underdeveloped in crime, corruption, violence, compared to other nations; Dessalines had zero tolerance for despots and famously stated "We will detonate and burn Haiti down and all rather die before we are returned to slavery and colonialism." Desalin di, "Depi teritwa nou an menase, koupe tèt, boule kay paske Ayisyen pap retounen lan esklavaj." )

3. The relentless ravages of geopolitics

Both Dessalines and Toussaint were responsible, at various times and to different degrees of culpability, for betraying the fight of the Haitian masses and rebel maroon leaders to consolidate power and personal influence either with the enslavers and their blan peyi overseers or, as a gambit for longevity in the struggle to fight again on another day. The same may be said, for Preval and Aristide, in varying degrees of culpability.

For example, Toussaint had his own nephew, General Moïse, executed for failing to protect a few white proprietors in a Maroon riot where a few whites, pledged protection by Toussaint, were killed. Dessalines, Christophe and Clerveaux, all, at a point, betrayed the Maroon rebels to the French (Leclerc). Dessalines was responsible for shooting Charles and Sanite Belair and other rebels on Leclerc's orders after Toussaint's capture. But, let's hasten to add that contradictions and betrayals of principles, and still being able to safeguard universal ideals (in Constitutions) for posterity, are not unique to Haitian heroes and to Haiti's founding fathers.

For, Thomas Jefferson, the U.S. founding father who penned the US Declaration of Independence which professed loudly, to all and sundry, that "all men are created equal," owned slaves, refused to recognized Haiti's independence and all the while was nightly bedding, at Monticello, a 14-year old black captive girl named, Sallie Hemings. George Washington also owned slaves. Thomas Jefferson, who meant by his declaration that "rich, white, propertied men where "created equal," is reputed to have fathered six children with Dusky Sally. John Locke and others of the European "enlightenment" participated in the slave trade, owned slaves, oppressed the less privileged and were reprehensible reprobates of different sorts . . . et al.

Why is it only their heroic qualities are constantly promoted to school children, while all the frailties of the Haitian founding fathers are constantly being laundered as indelible stains? Is it that foreign "scholars" or the mentally colonized/Eurocenric black elites, are not, like in Haiti, telling these Western "heroes," much nuanced, complex, blemished and intricate stories to elementary school children in the US and Europe? But they were/are socially and culturally, if not economically, rewarded for promoting only the "so-blemished-by-racism-and-neocolonialism" tale of Haitian heroes?

In our opinion, as participants and witnesses in the Haitian struggle, Aristide’s attempt at over-conciliation with the macoutes and the imperialists cumulatively disempowered, took for granted and placed his allies, both at home and in the Diaspora, in an untenable position. We agree that the enemy is overwhelming, that Haitian resources are limited. But still, Haiti indeed needed and still needs the strength of a Dessalines and to clearly struggle against Neocolonialism and for a Black-ruled-Independent-Nation. And if, for this need and Haitian necessity, Haiti and Haitians are always going to face the guns, brutality, propaganda and inevitability of coup d’etat from the economic elites and imperialist powers, it’s far better, far more dignified to empower our own directly, instead of the blan peyi and blan kolon vagabon and struggle for Dessaline’s Law, as best we can, eye-to-eye, on our feet and without always dissembling (#tootolerant).

Both Toussaint Louverture and Jean Jacques Dessalines took up arms against the white enslavers and colonists. But because Toussaint Louverture fought for neocolonialism, he's the one revered by the whites. The whites still fear and hate Dessalines because he beat them and declared Haiti a Black independent nation. Down the annals of history, the impression has been propagated, to the interests of the whites, (Dessalines), that Toussaint Louverture was sort of Gandhi-like and non-violent, which is totally untrue. (See also "Napoleon was no Toussaint" by Jafrikayiti).

Toussaint Louverture killed his share of white enslavers and colonists as general of Haiti's indigenous army before Dessalines. And when Toussaint Louverture was kidnapped because he was too trusting of the whites, too compromising and too tolerant, it was time for Dessalines. Today, Haiti awaits a Dessalines. Ezili Dantò said this back on the day of Aristide's kidnapping. Haiti awaits a Dessalines (Anne Pale I). Read in particular "Moun ki fe bagay sa, jodi a -yo swaf dlo lan zye!: Haitian fratricide allowed for the Empire to eat up our divisions (Ezili Dantò, Imperialists making a Comeback, Feb. 29, 2004).

Many so-called "learned" older Haitians from the French-based, or Pepe/Neo-ecclesiastic and Eurocentric education eras in Haiti, will tell you emphatically that there could not be a Dessalines without a Toussaint. And that as a matter of fact Dessalines was Toussaint's lieutenant. So what, he was a general under Toussaint's reign also. That doesn't necessarily mean Dessalines wanted to be beholden to France, or did not side with the Maroon's visions of an independently Black ruled nation free from colonialism, neocolonialism and slavery. Besides, "Who wrote the his-story these folks imbibe whole and unfettered, minimizing Dessalines and refusing to make room for cohesion within contradictions and contradictions within co-existence in a particular community of peoples? That may be the problem right there.

For Martin Luther King and Malcolm X shared the same era and struggles, so did Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. Neither "needed" the other's existence to espouse their opposing visions for attaining freedom and equity for Black folks in the U.S. They co-existed, even recognized there were greater evils to face than one another. But yet were vehemently, mutually opposed in strategic ways and visions. History shows that it is Dessalines and the Haitian Maroon rebel's visions and indigenous triumphs in Haiti that still inspires the masses to struggle on against neocolonialism. (Mesi Papa Desalin; "I Want the Assets of the Country to be Equitably Divided" said Haiti's founding father, General Jean Jacques Dessalines; See Haiti's National Anthem called Dessaline's Song or La Desalinyen).

The masses in Haiti aren’t fighting to be under neocolonial tutelage with a Latortue, an Apaid, Boulos, Baker or even a Preval or some other willing or unwilling Black overseer presiding over them as feudal landlord for the Western or Post-World-War-II-Security-Council-powers-that-be. Haitians are not looking to forever be producers, non-owners but never the consumers of the fruits of their own labor, their own country's assets; not looking to reverently bow down to a foreign President, Prime Minister, Queen, King and be a principality/commonwealth or State of a foreign power as the other countries in the Caribbean.

"From the beginning to now, the Haitian way was other than that of the discoverers" (Does the Western economic calculation of wealth fit Haiti -fit Dessalines' idea of wealth distribution? NO!).

The point that cannot be over-emphasized is that it was Dessalines, not Toussaint, who expressed the vision of the Haitian maroons and masses. Also, though Aristide is no Dessalines, it is Aristide and the excluded masses, not Preval, not the neo-Duvalierist macoutes now running Haiti, that the people of Haiti were looking to empower with the Feb. 7, 2006 vote. Indeed, it was Dessalines, not Toussaint, who expressed the vision of the Haitian maroons and masses:

Dessalines' Zero Tolerance for despots was expressed thus: "We will detonate and burn Haiti down and all rather die before we are returned to slavery and colonialism" (#zero) In Kreyol - Desalin di: "Depi teritwa nou an menase, koupe tèt, boule kay" paske Ayisyen pap retounen lan esklavaj."

Neither Aristide, nor Preval come close to Dessalines' Law or revolutionary ideas. (See, Looking for Haiti's Freedom on May 18, 2007 )

4. Religion, mythology, cosmology, psychological, primordial archetypes and cultural—The paramount importance of Culture, Gender, Vodun and the Arts

Ezili Dantò & Bwa Kayiman: It should never be ignored or understated that the Haitian Revolution began in 1791 with the Maroon rebels, Boukman and Cecile Fatiman at Bwa Kayiman.

The Revolution which created the nation of Haiti was inspired by the divine decree of the warrior love goddess known as Ezili Dantò who danced in the head of the great Haitian priestess, Cecile Fatiman, on that famous Haitian night in 1791, on a red hilltop, at a forest thicket in Haiti called Bwa Kayiman. Led by the powerful warrior spirit of Ezili Dantò, Cecile Fatiman crowned the African warrior Boukmann with her royal red Petwo scepter, ushering in the Haitian war which forever slashed the chains of European slavery in Haiti to create Africa's sacred trust, Manman Ayiti—the first Black nation in the Western Hemisphere.

Ezili Dantò (the Lwa) is the symbol of the irreducible essence of that ancient Black mother, mother of all the races, who holds Haiti's umbilical chord back to Africa, back to Anba Dlo*. Calling on her essence, breath, vision and cosmic power brought forth Haiti's release from 300-hundred years of brutal European enslavement . . . in the Americas and over one thousand years of Islamic conquest and enslavement incursions all over Africa.

Ezili Dantò is the spiritual mother of Haiti and the preeminent cosmic symbol of Black independence, unity, self-determination, justice, equality and freedom." (Ezili Danto Bio). Also, go to: Haitians Have a Legacy to Reach ; A Tribute to Haitian Women - 1804 to 2004 ; Black Women: Mother of All the Races - HOW THAT BLACK WOMAN CAME TO BE? This last essay was also originally posted on a thread at Windows on Haiti as "One plus one equals three - Black Woman Mother of the Races").

At Bwa Kayiman, Africa’s children, for once, stopped identifying with their captors and their captors creed(s) and called on what they could remember of the original Black mother’s creed. Boukman and the more than 200 delegates from plantations all over Northern Haiti, reverently bowed to the Black goddess—even though some had converted willingly or unwillingly to Christianity or Islam, the warriors at Bwa Kayiman, male and female, the amalgamated African tribes, ditch the conqueror's religion, culture, cosmology, mythology, psychology and brought into existence the first Black nation founded on the Black mother’s culture, Vodun. Not, the captors’ creeds. Nothing like this had happened in world history, for by 1791 Africa had already been suffering unmercifully, been brutalized, pillaged, enslaved for then over a thousand years of Islamic conquest and more than 300 years of Christian conquest. (Haitians Have a Legacy to Reach, originally posted on a thread at Windows on Haiti)

For being ahead of its time, Haiti has been ravaged by all the powers wishing to lay claim to the cradle of civilization's riches, resources, powers and even primordial DNA. There is a global racist hierarchy out there with whites at the top, where white or lighter skin divides people. This is the denigration of our common ancestry, common African motherland, common Black mother. In lifting up and glorifying, at its birth, the Black mother’s indigenous civilizations as opposed to the derivative European or Arab creeds, which civilizations, provided the initial seed for all the world's cultures, Haiti is deemed "backwards" and "doomed."

Have these descendants of old invaders whose ancestors, had, over the centuries outside of Africa, lost their pigmentation and began to base their cultures on the glorification of said lost of melanin truly lost memory of their beginnings or, are they merely vociferously in denial for very profound psychological, political and economic-divide-and-conquer reasons? (Sept. 22, 2003, Windows on Haiti—The Black Mother - she's Moroccan too! It's true.)

Who will jete dlo in oblation, erect alters in tribute to reclaim the Black mother? Besides Haiti, what country, on this earth, do you know that came into existence by reclaiming the traditional, African-derived culture of mother Africa? (What country) spilled blood, labored, sacrificed and defended themselves in order to keep that culture, (that language and language of values) alive for over 200 years of Christian-sponsored containment-in-poverty even after independence (from 1804 to the present)? Go all around the world, and the answer is: None but Haitians! The most formidable protectors of Africa’s sacred trust.

Being so associated with the Black mother has given us-Haitians a vilified image. For Vodun is, the Mother of the Races' vilified image never lain to rest, attacked from all sides, so pitiable and yet so unpitied. Vodun, is how She became folklored and memorialized in song, dance, drumming and sacred arts. Vodun is what we have left of Her in Haiti. And, Vodun is why Haiti came to be.

Yet the task is huge – a whole continent awaits our recognizing our purpose. A whole world awaits. In India, the Black untouchables await the rise of the Black Goddess. In Mauritania, the African traditionalist who are being enslaved by the Arab Africans, await Her. They await Her rise in the Sudan. In China with their Blacker caste segregated. In America, we await in the ghettos in prisons, both literal and mental prisons. What a task, for a small piece broken away from Africa, floating in the Caribbean Sea.

The Black mother's sons and daughters never earn any rest as we are sure, at this very moment a child of the darkest part of Africa is being beaten somewhere, killed somewhere, tortured somewhere, on this planet, solely because their skin is darker in the societies in which they live.

Boukmann knew the ancient ancestral names to call forth in times of trials, for inspiration. Makandal knew. The Cacos knew. . . . The children of Mauritania, parts of Nigeria, Benin, Sudan are waiting to be reintroduce to these ancestors. Haiti must not drown in shame, paralysis, or confusion. Ayiti was forged out of the crucible of neither greatness of title nor high birth, but from killing the stranger within ("Kanga Mundele"), rejecting the captors' creeds to reach back to what is source, plowing through the scarlet past to touch what is wholeness and enlightenment—to touch the greatness of exploring one's self and of bringing vision to others who had lost pigmentation and/or had been unhinged from the Black womb.

"It's a great legacy to rise and meet. " (See, Haitians Have a Legacy to Reach and One plus one equals three - Black Woman Mother of the Races.)

We are one planet, one race—the human race—with the sacred task of bringing beauty forth, divinity into manifestation, to respect diversity and promote peaceful and harmonious coexistence. Our natural destiny is as one just as our evolutionary beginning.

Thus, neither the little Island called Ayiti nor even Africa is our only place of abode. At its beginning Haiti was both Pan-Africanist and Pan-Americanist (with Dessalines helping Miranda, Petion helping Bolivar eventually to set free five Latin American countries.)

Dessalines' definition of "Black" as "lovers of liberty" provides a psychological and political tool to counter the current "white" global hierarchy that wishes to make Blacks "aliens" to the Americas, strangers to building civilizations, to enjoying the world's bounties, et al.

However, we simultaneously understand, in a myriad of ways, including through evolutionary science and also because of Vodun that we all had a common mother, common ancestor, are brothers and sisters, no matter the pigmentation. This also assures us that there's no such thing as "our place" on this earth as "Black" or brown peoples. For, as human beings we are natural travelers. The artificial Euro/US prototype Nation-States, with artificial borders and Euro/US draconian exclusionary passports and exclusionary-mostly-to-dark-peoples-entrance-laws is fairly new to human and world history. Civilization originated in Africa and Blacks spread from Africa to people the earth and give rise to the "races" and even these "nation-states" vying for the resources and souls of "Black" folk.

Therefore our work is people-to-people as we the downtrodden-by-imperialism, white privilege and economic deprivation Black folk indeed naturally claim the right to life, self-defense, health, wealth, perfect-self expression and more than Africa or Ayiti on this planet as our "place." For, neither artificial creeds, artificial nation-states built on the sweat, blood and pillage of the colonized and enslaved Black and brown, neither racist ideologies, capitalist oppressions, nor any such constructed systems or borders will ultimately stop the human races' spirit and thirst for truth, travel, expanse, learning; for upward mobility, for bringing forth beauty and for humane co-existence with all the other peoples of different ethnicities and cultures on earth.

5. Go after the Respondeat Superior

Given the relentless ravages and implacable brutality of the world's ruling oligarchs and economic elites, and of their geopolitics; given that Haitian resources are limited, it's not clever to divide our attentions and focus. For the freedom of the masses also sets free the gatekeepers and prison guards - the middlemen and his bosses. We must prioritize and focus, people-to-people in exploding the myths, terrors, lies, brutalities and barbarity of the enslavers, a group I call Category One.

Category Zero - the Black overseer/opportunist/subcontracted Haitians - be they willing or unwilling feudal lords or middlemen of varying degrees and levels of culpability - would not be able to systematically oppress or exploit Haiti’s or any other of the world's downtrodden masses without the economic, military, diplomatic, political, psychological et al., support of Category One - the racist imperial powers, their privileges and self-serving, oppressive patriarchy. Here then, it is crucial to recall that an employer is responsible for its employees actions performed within the course of employment. Thus, strategically it's far better for all Haitians, the classes and the masses, of all hues and creeds, to look outwards together and prioritize neutralizing Category One (the imperialist/colonizer/enslaver), not their black middlemen or overseers.

To that end, we recall again Haiti's revolutionary beginnings and how Haiti won its freedom and independence when the masses and the classes worked temporarily as one, finding catharsis, cohesion, connection and community as they looked outwards together for their own interests and humane values, while refusing to allow their differences and divisions to help bolster the interests of the imperialist and the hierarchical "white" tribes' bigotries.

Our task is to live with impossibilities and contradictions without betraying the principles of humane co-existence, revolution and equity. Ours, is to make a way out of no-way and find the unity in multiplicity. It was done in 1791 at Bwa Kayiman and, again, in 1804 with the Declaration of Haiti's independence. During theses points of time in eternity, it mattered not, Petion or Dessalines' inherent differences, pigmentations, their statuses in society, literacy, language proficiencies, self-definition in terms of nationality or religion. At that time, it mattered not that Toya, Cecile Fatiman, Mari Jann and Defile were women. They all took up arms and courageously marched into the mouths of European cannons to help eliminate European chattel slavery in the Western Hemisphere. We are their living libraries, proof of this precedent, Dessalines' descendants, the amalgamated tribes, the lovers of liberty - what's sometimes, in the Americas, called Kreyol. We have a legacy to reach.

Marguerite "Ezili Dantò" Laurent, Esq.
Founder and Chair,
Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
June 21, 2007

Source: http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/Gutierrez.html#zero

 posted 23 June 2007

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updated 20 October 2007